Five Best Practices to Enhance the Security of Your Fidelity Accounts
At Truepoint, we believe in giving our clients peace of mind—keeping your money safe from cyberscams is essential in this pursuit. Here are five of Fidelity’s best practices for increasing the security of their accounts. Please note that everyone has their own Fidelity login credentials, and these steps must be completed for each person within your household.
Make sure your contact information is up to date
It is crucial that Fidelity can contact you and keep you updated about activity in your account. To confirm your contact information is updated, log in to Fidelity.com and select Profile in the top left-hand corner. You will see your mobile number, email, and address on file. These can be updated at any time on Fidelity.com or by emailing your advisor.
Enable multi-factor authentication on your account
Multi-factor authentication adds an extra verification step while logging in to help prevent fraudsters from accessing your accounts and data even if they have your login credentials. It can also notify you if someone is trying to log in without your permission.
To set up multi-factor authentication, navigate to the Profile page, scroll down and select Security Center in the Security box. Once in the Security Center, you can set up one of Fidelity’s multi-factor authentication options when you log in.
When multi-factor authentication is enabled, you will receive a code through your communication method of choice. Do not read back a security code to someone on a phone call unless you have called Fidelity’s official phone number. Only type the code into Fidelity.com or Fidelity’s app.
Pro tip: The most secure option is to download an authenticator app and connect it to your Fidelity account. Please note that when you turn this on, you are required to receive a code from the app to log in moving forward.
Be alerted to activity happening in your Fidelity accounts
Text and email alerts are a great way to stay in the know about activity going on in your accounts and be alerted if unauthorized transactions occur. While in the Security Center, turn on Security Text Alerts.
Fidelity recommends setting up additional alerts to receive texts about deposits and withdrawals. To do so, search “text alerts” in the search bar at the top right-hand corner of the page and click the Text Alerts page among the search results. You can set up alerts for deposits, cash transfers, and payments on this page. You can also set additional alerts by selecting News & Research from the green banner, then Alerts.
Set up Fidelity MyVoice®
Fidelity MyVoice® is a voice verification system that detects and verifies your identity through natural conversation, adding another level of security through their phone channels. To set this up, call 1-800-Fidelity and say “account access” when prompted. Let the associate know you are interested in setting it up, and they will guide you from here.
Set up additional security on your cell phone and email
Fidelity will send you notifications and security codes to your phones and email, so it’s important these are secure as well. Call your cell phone provider to enable a PIN or passphrase to prevent criminals from porting your phone to a new carrier or swapping their SIM card for yours. Email providers also offer multifactor authentication that adds additional security to your account.
We are happy to answer any questions or assist with setting any of these up. Reach out to your advisor if you would like any assistance.